After analyzing the current battle situation, Tang Qiuli smiled to himself, and looked at the enemy situation map hanging on the wall, on the north bank of the Seshuangge River, a thick blue arrow, pointing to the south, which represented the direction of the Soviet army's attack.

On the south bank of the Sesoge River, a red line is much more slender, which is the defense line of the Soviet army on behalf of Sun Zhenbang's troops, and the vast area further south is several thick red lines, pointing to the target. It is the area of the Seguge River.

That is the direct corps of ten mechanized infantry brigades, east refers to three mechanized infantry brigades, four artillery brigades, and the direction of the four tank brigades of Battle, from the situation map, these four huge encirclements, divided into two directions, left and right, towards the north bank of the Sejingge River Soviet army cover the past, Tang Qiuli's campaign layout, the overall situation is very clear, with an absolute superiority of troops, the southern invasion of the Soviet Transcaucasian Military District troops, encircled and annihilated in the Seguge River area.

Of course, the idea of this campaign is still on the map, because the mobilization and deployment of troops takes time, and the 1st and 2nd Brigades, which are closest to the Sejingge River, still have a day and a half to march, and after all the troops are in place, they will have to be from 25 to 26 September at the earliest, that is to say, if they want to encircle the Soviet army, it will take five or six days later.

Tang Qiuli rubbed his swollen temples and said to Colonel Wang Jun, chief of staff of the Outer Mongolian Border Guards: "Sun Zhenbang is under great pressure, if his troops, in the defense line of the Sejingge River, block the Soviet army for about three days, then our deployment will be much calmer, if the casualties are too large, the Soviet army will soon break through his blocking line, for us." It's very passive, and it's indispensable to fight a vicious battle around Kulun! ”

Wang Jun thought for a while, and said: "Division commander, as the chief of staff of the Outer Mongolian Frontier Army, I am very frank to state my opinion to you, I think that you should cancel the border troops on the front line of the Selenga River and carry out the order of flexible defense, but you should order Commander Sun." For more than five days, for the victory of the overall battle, our border guard troops, even if it costs a lot, are worth it. Commander Sun also has this opinion, I hope you can think about it! ”

Tang Qiuli shook his head. He said in a heavy tone: "Chief of Staff Wang." I understand what you and Sun Zhenbang think, but if a battle is won at the cost of more than 50,000 soldiers killed, such a victory is for me. It's too heavy, not to mention, the development of the campaign does not necessarily require such sacrifices. You send another telegram to Sun Zhenbang, clearly telling him that the order of flexible defense cannot be changed! ”

Wang Jun wanted to say something, but when he saw the firm gaze of the division commander, he swallowed back the words that came to his mouth, sighed in his heart, seemed to be a little lost, and a little moved, and went out to send a telegram.

Sun Zhenbangbang, who was under heavy shelling by the Soviet army, didn't know what the division commander was thinking at the moment, he was in the rickety shelter department, and kept making phone calls, but none of the telephones to the frontline troops could be connected.

The head of the communications department in the headquarters stumbled to Sun Zhenbang's front and shouted: "Commander, it must be that the artillery fire of the Soviet army is too fierce, and the telephone lines leading to the front line have all been blown up!" ”

Sun Zhenbang turned around abruptly and roared angrily: "Director Liu, our unit has been stationed in the defense line of the Sejingge River for five or six days, and your communications department is all eating dry food?" Telephone lines to the forward positions, why not bury them deeply? ”

Director Liu of the Communications Department said aggrievedly: "Commander, I am not a novice, all the telephone lines leading to the front line are buried one and a half meters deep underground, who knows, the Soviet artillery fire is so fierce, you can rest assured, I immediately order the communications battalion, send telephone soldiers to check the line, within 30 minutes, to ensure that the telephone line is unimpeded, and if the task is not completed, you will remove me!" ”

After saying that, the lieutenant colonel's communications chief took a steel helmet and put it on his head, grabbed a submachine gun, and took two guards with him, and was about to go outside the shelter.

Sun Zhenbang grabbed him and taught him a lesson: "You are looking for death!" Lao Maozi's artillery fire is so powerful, before you can take two steps, the cannonball can tear you to pieces, hey, forget it, I know that the work of your communications department is in place, if you want to blame, blame the old Maozi soldier who fought the artillery! ”

Director Liu of the Communications Department is also stubborn, if the commander blames, it will be like a knife, stabbing his heart, struggling to persevere, "Boom, boom!" Another burst of dense shells fell around the headquarters, covering the dirt on the roof of the department, and a large area fell, splashing the two of them with mud all over their faces, Sun Zhenbang spit out the dirt in his mouth and scolded viciously, "It's fucking unlucky." ”

Then, glared at Director Liu fiercely, turned around and picked up the telescope, observing the movement of the forward position, the telescope lens, everywhere after the explosion of the shells, stirred up the soil, the cracked flames, the smoke of gunpowder, the visibility was only a few meters, nothing could be seen, Sun Zhenbang dropped the telescope in frustration, his heart was full of worry.

What were the casualties of the troops in the anti-artillery holes and shelters of such a fierce and intensive shelling? Although the shells can't directly kill the soldiers, if they can't help such an artillery bombardment and collapse, aren't the soldiers inside buried alive? In each shelter and anti-artillery hole, there are at least two or more squads of soldiers, so this round of artillery bombardment, the troops are casualties, isn't it more than halfway, how to fight the next battle?

General Kulygin, standing on a high ground, holding a telescope, observing the effect of the shelling, beside him, following this large number of senior Soviet generals, he looked at his watch, he has been shelling for forty-five minutes, judging from the superficial effect, all the targets are shrouded in gunsmoke, but this is not enough, in case the cunning Chinese soldiers are hidden underground, the lethal effect of the shelling will be greatly reduced.

General Kurygin called over to the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Zirnenko, and instructed: "Chief of staff, order the artillery units, after the scheduled shelling is over, with an interval of twenty minutes, to the original target, and shell again for fifteen minutes, and then the artillery fire will be extended again, and the order for the engineer units to erect pontoon bridges will remain unchanged!" ”

Lieutenant General Zirnenko was a little puzzled and asked: "Comrade commander, what is your intention?" The engineering units erected pontoon bridges according to the original plan, and at such a close distance, the artillery shelled again, which would cause accidental injuries! ”

General Kurygin smiled reservedly and said in a tone of lesson: "My chief of staff, in the ancient Chinese art of war, there is such a strategy, call back the horse gun, I want to use our nearly 1,000 artillery pieces to stage a modern version of the horse gun to teach these Chinese a profound lesson, don't you think that it is a very interesting thing to use the wisdom of the Chinese to fight the Chinese?" ”

"As for the problem of accidental injuries that you are worried about, there is no such thing, the width of the Sejingge River is more than 100 meters, and the training level of our artillery is not so low, right?"

Lieutenant General Zirnenko shrugged his shoulders and didn't say anything more, as the chief of staff, he had fulfilled his responsibilities, as for whether he was adopted by his superiors, that was another matter, and at the same time, he was also full of curiosity about what the commander said!

At five o'clock in the morning on 20 September, the fierce shelling of the Soviet army came to an abrupt end, as suddenly as it had begun, and this change from extremely loud noise and trembling to extremely quiet made people unable to adapt to it in a short time.

Sun Zhenbang felt that the ground under his feet was no longer trembling, and the sky above his head was no longer filled with a huge explosion, he was stunned for a moment, and a huge roar still echoed in his ears, "The shelling of the Soviet army has stopped!" He reacted immediately.

A few minutes later, the dawning wind of the Outer Mongolian grassland blew away the pervasive gunsmoke, and the front line of the Sejingge River was clearly displayed in the field of vision, Sun Zhenbang grabbed the binoculars and looked at the other side of the river.

He saw that from behind the high ground on the other side of the river, a group of Soviet soldiers rushed out, as well as trucks, to the river, Soviet soldiers unloaded a large amount of equipment from the trucks, and soon, on the beach on the north bank of the Sesagoge River, the first pontoon bridge was erected, the Soviet sappers moved very fast, almost visible to the naked eye, the pontoon bridge was extending to the south bank, under observation, there were more than a dozen.

"Understood, the Soviets are building pontoon bridges for their tanks to cross the river!" Sun Zhenbang turned around and ordered: "Immediately send a messenger to all positions on the front, order the troops at the front, bombard the pontoon bridges of the Soviet army with mortars, and shoot at the Soviet sappers with heavy machine guns!" ”

More than a dozen correspondents from the command headquarters agreed, and were just about to run out, but they were stopped by Sun Zhenbang again, "Wait! Director Liu of the Communications Department, however, took two guard battalions and got out of the shelter department, knowing that it was the critical moment when the commander was about to give orders to the forward positions, and only by repairing the telephone lines as much as possible would he not delay the matter.

The correspondents looked at the commander in puzzlement, Sun Zhenbang at this moment, I don't know why, I have a bad feeling in my heart, in the first Outer Mongolian War, I have fought with the Soviet army, I know their routine, according to the normal situation, after the Soviet army's artillery bombardment of its forward positions is over, the artillery fire should be extended in depth to prevent their follow-up troops from counterattacking and covering the attack of their infantry.

However, the artillery fire suddenly stopped, and the sappers were sent out to erect the pontoon bridge, which on the surface was normal, and the Soviet commander wanted to use tanks as the first round of assault force, but the Soviet sappers were swaggering to erect the pontoon bridge without the cover of artillery fire, and were they not afraid of being killed and injured by the fierce fire of their own forward troops?

Or did the Soviet commander believe that the hour-long shelling, with the units of the independent division at the front, was wiped out by artillery fire? In any case, Sun Zhenbang's bad feeling became stronger and stronger, and he ordered: "Radio room, immediately contact the 1st Artillery Brigade and the 2nd Artillery Brigade, I have an important task to them!" ”

(To be continued) (To be continued.) For mobile phone users, please go to read. )